The magic of frequencies - 432 Hz vs. 440 Hz: Do cheerful and sad music tuned to different frequencies cause different effects on human psychophysiology? A neuropsychology study on music and emotions: Frekansların sihri – 432 Hz 440 Hz’e karşı: Ayrı frekanslara göre akortlanmış neşeli ve hüzünlü müzikler insan psikofizyolojisi üzerinde farklı etkiler yaratır mı? Müzik ve duygular üzerine bir nöropsikoloji araştırması

The present study aims to see whether music (cheerful and sad) tuned to different frequencies (432 Hz vs. 440 Hz) cause different effects on the listener’s emotions. In the research, the effects of cheerful and sad music samples at different frequencies were examined within the framework of variables such as Heart Rate Variability (HRV), emotions felt and mood. The study was carried out with a total of 51 participants (31 women comprising 60.8% of the study group, and 20 men comprising 39.2% of the study group) who have not received music education. The average age of the participants is 22.19 (S = 1.08, range = 20-25). In the study, the activation levels of the autonomic nervous system were assessed using Heart Rate Variability (HRV), whereas the moods of the participants before listening music were assessed using the Profile of Mood States (POMS) scale. Finally, The Geneva Emotional Music Scales (GEMS) was used to assess the potential emotions and mood state to appear after listening music. All music samples used in the study (one cheerful and one sad per participant) were chosen by the relevant participant. The conversion of the samples recorded at 440 Hz tuning frequency, to 432 Hz was carried out with a Max/MSP patch designed specifically for the study. The findings of the study show that the cheerful and sad music tuned to different frequency levels (432 Hz vs. 440 Hz) do not induce significant variation in sympathetic and parasympathetic activation levels. However, regardless of the tuning, the participants who listened cheerful music reported higher levels of relaxation after listening. Moreover, again regardless of the tuning, according to GEMS results, the participants experienced higher levels of sublimity compared to unease, and also higher levels of unease compared to vitality. The analysis regarding cheerful music, in turn, found that the participants, this time, experienced higher levels of vitality compared to sublimity, and higher levels of sublimity compared to unease. In the most comprehensive analysis with no reference to the cheerful or sad character of the sample, the participants who listened 440 Hz pieces reported rather negative mood after listening music compared to the participants who listened 432 Hz pieces. Moreover, men were observed to report even higher levels of negative mood after listening 440 Hz pieces, compared to their mood after listening 432 Hz pieces. All the findings thus reached imply that different tunes lead to variation in reported moods, even though they do not bring about changes in sympathetic and parasympathetic activation levels. ​Extended English summary is in the end of Full Text PDF (TURKISH) file.   Özet Bu çalışmanın amacı, 432 Hz ve 440 Hz frekanslara göre ayarlanmış müziklerin (neşeli ve hüzünlü) duygu oluşumunda bir fark yaratıp yaratmayacağını değerlendirmektir. Farklı frekanslardaki neşeli ve hüzünlü müzik örneklerinin yarattığı etkiler, Kalp Hızı Değişkenliği (KHD), hissedilen duygular ve duygu durumu gibi değişkenler çerçevesinde incelenmiştir. Araştırma, müzik eğitimi almayan 31'i (%60.8) kadın, 20'si (%39.2) erkek toplam 51 kişiyle gerçekleştirilmiştir. Katılımcıların genel yaş ortalaması 22.19’dur (S = 1.08, ranj = 20-25). Çalışmada otonom sinir sistemi aktivasyonunu değerlendirmek için Kalp Hızı Değişkenliği (KHD) ölçümü; müzik dinleme öncesi anlık duygu durumunu (mood) değerlendirmek için Duygu Durumu Profili Ölçeği (POMS) ve müzik dinleme sonrası oluşan muhtemel duyguları değerlendirmek için Cenova Duygu Müzik Ölçeği (GEMS) kullanılmıştır. Çalışmada kullanılan bütün müzik örnekleri (bir neşeli, bir hüzünlü) her bir katılımcının kendisi tarafından belirlenmiştir. 440 Hz akort frekansına göre kaydedilmiş örneklerin 432 Hz frekansa dönüştürülmesi çalışmaya özgü geliştirilmiş bir Max/MSP patch uygulaması ile yapılmıştır. Bulgular, farklı frekanslara (432 Hz ve 440 Hz) göre dinlenen neşeli ve hüzünlü müziklerin, sempatik ve parasempatik aktivasyon düzeyleri arasında anlamlı bir fark yaratmadığını göstermiştir. Ancak akort türünden bağımsız olarak, neşeli müzik dinleyen katılımcılar müzik dinleme sonrası daha fazla gevşeme hissettiklerini bildirmişlerdir. Bunun yanı sıra katılımcıların, akort türünden bağımsız olarak GEMS ölçeğine göre hüzünlü müzik dinleme sonrası yücelik (sublimity) duygusunu canlılık (vitality) ve huzursuzluk (unease) duygusundan daha fazla hissettiği; huzursuzluk duygusunu ise canlılık duygusundan daha fazla hissettiği belirlenmiştir. Neşeli müzik için yapılan analiz sonucunda katılımcıların neşeli müzik dinleme sonrası canlılık duygusunu yücelik ve huzursuzluk duygularından daha fazla hissettiği; yücelik duygusunu ise huzursuzluk duygusundan daha fazla hissettiği görülmüştür. En genel değerlendirmede müzik türünden bağımsız olarak, 440 Hz ile müzik dinleyen katılımcıların 432 Hz ile müzik dinleyen katılımcılara göre müzik dinleme sonrası olumsuz duygu durumunun daha yüksek olduğu; ayrıca erkeklerin kadınlara göre 440 Hz müzikleri dinleme sonrası olumsuz duygu durumunun 432 Hz müzikleri dinleme sonrası olumsuz duygu durumundan daha yüksek olduğu görülmüştür. Elde edilen tüm bulgular akort türünün sempatik ve parasempatik aktivasyon düzeyleri arasında bir farklılaşma yaratmasa da duygu durumu üzerinde bir farklılaşmaya neden olduğunu ima etmektedir

Retrospective Analysis of Skull and Spine Traumas

Objective:In this study, in patients who applied to the forensic medicine outpatient clinic due to skull and spine trauma; We aimed to compare categorical data by defining age, gender, causes of trauma, trauma site, fracture type and accompanying pathologies.Methods:Files and computed tomography reports of a total of 105 patients, 24 women and 81 men, between the ages of 18 and 75, who were exposed to skull and spine trauma, registered in the database of the Hitit University Erol Olçok Training and Research Hospital Forensic Medicine Polyclinic Unit between 01.01.2017 and 31.12.2020 examined. In cases; gender, age, cause of trauma, fracture type, injury site, multiple site injuries and presence of pathologies accompanying trauma were evaluated. Data analysis was performed with the IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0 statistical program. Categorical data were compared with chi-square and Fisher Exact tests.Results:The most trauma was detected in male individuals aged 51-60 years. The most common cause of trauma was traffic accidents with a rate of 48.6% (51 cases). In the skull, frontal linear fractures and in the spine, lumbar vertebrae corpus fractures were the most common lesions. Pneumocephaly, spinal injuries and paraplegia were seen as a complication.Conclusion:We think that our study will be beneficial in terms of guiding physicians in the observation, diagnosis and reporting processes of patients who apply to the Forensic Medicine units of hospitals

Tick bite cases among hazelnut farm workers in Giresun

Ticks are arthropod vectors of many diseases. The prevalence of Lyme disease transmitted by Ixodes is not known in Turkey. The disease is caused by Borrelia species and can also be seen in domestic animals. The aim of this study is to identify the ticks, which are collected from the agricultural workers who admitted to hospitals during the hazelnut harvest season between August and September 2015, at species and genus level and investigate whether these ticks vector of Borrelia spp. Method: In this study, 152 ticks collected from 134 patients were investigated. Of all samples including larvae and nymphs, 95.24% were collected in September. All patients who admitted with complaints of tick bites were agricultural workers collecting nuts in the gardens at sea level. The ticks were identified at species and genus level with stereomicroskop, hemolymph fluid examined directly by dark-field microscope and cultured in the Borellia BarbourStoenner-Kelly (BSK-H) medium. Results: Of all the ticks, 126 (82.9%) were adults, 13 (8.55%) were nymphs and 13 (8.55%) were larvae. Stereoscopic examination of the ticks revealed that 125 (82.2%) of the adults were Ixodes ricinus and 1 (0.65%) was Rhipicephalus sanguineus. All of the 13 nymphs (8.55%) and 13 larvae (8.55%) were identified as Ixodes spp.. All forms of development cycle were detected in the samples and the forms were inconsistent with the expected development cycle. Borrelia spp., the agent of Lyme disease, was investigated in the 146 ticks defined as I. ricinus and Ixodes spp. Borrelia spp were detected by dark field microscope in 3 (2.05%) of the 146 Ixodes and Borrelia spp. were identified in 5 (3.4%) of the cultures. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that Lyme disease can be seen in our region and the most probable vector is Ixodes ricinus

Evaluation of features for predicting document difficulty

Knowing the difficulty of a text document, in particular learning materials, has many benefits, such as recommending documents that are tailored towards a specific target group with the goal of maximizing understanding when reading these recommended documents. While different factors exist that affect document difficulty, they capture different aspects of it. One of which is readability, which captures syntactical and lexical text properties and relates to linguistic difficulty. Another one is the background knowledge needed for readers to understand a given document because concepts therein might be more or less complex. Although both factors have been analyzed in isolation, their interplay is unknown. Similarly, the importance of both factors has not been examined, although addressing any of those problems could improve the understanding of document difficulty and thus pave the way towards more reliable models for predicting document difficulty. Hence, this work investigates both problems by proposing a supervised model that extracts 20 features related to background knowledge and readability of a document to predict its difficulty. This model serves as the basis for analyzing the importance of these features and the interplay between background knowledge and readability for estimating document difficulty. We find that linguistic difficulty is more important than background knowledge across all datasets. To the best of our knowledge, there are no datasets in the educational domain available for predicting document difficulty, thus we created one about biological concepts. We release this dataset to the research community in the hope to stimulate more research and provide more data to assess the reliability of methods for predicting document difficulty across different domains

Early Period Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Turkish Electricity Profile

The World Health Organization has defined Covid-19, a virus first seen in China in December 2019, as a global epidemic on March 11, 2020 due to its spread and severity. On the same date, the first case was diagnosed in Turkey and then a great success has been achieved in preventing the rise of the epidemic curve thanks to the measures taken timely and accurately. These measures such as lockdown restrictions, stopping the activities of some businesses, taking a break to face to face education at all levels and passing through to distance education, arranging shift working and work at home models for the staff employed in both public and private sector had impacts on the electricity generation and consumption profile. Supply-demand rates changed on a daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal basis. Therefore, effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on Turkish electrical energy profile is examined and analyzed in this paper comparatively with recent years. Some parameters such as lockdown days, public holidays, workdays, Ramadan month and feast, meteorological conditions, annual growth and development rate have been especially considered. Authors consider that the study will contribute to both the literature and to readers thanks to its detailed technical analyzes and evaluations

Kronik Böbrek Yetmezliği Olan Çocuk ve Adölesanlarda Malnütrisyon ile Yaşam Kalitesinin İlişkisi

Amaç: Bu araştırmada, kronik böbrek yetmezliği (KBY) olan çocuk ve adölesanların diyetsel parametrelerinin(diyet kalitesi ve diyet asit yükü) incelenmesi ve malnütrisyon varlığı ile yaşam kaliteleri arasındaki ilişkinindeğerlendirilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Gereç ve Yöntem: Araştırmaya, 2-18 yaş aralığındaki 76 KBY’li birey dahiledilmiştir. Geriye dönük 24 saatlik besin tüketim kaydı alınarak, diyet kalitesi ve diyet asit yükü belirlenmiştir.Diyet kalitesi Sağlıklı Yeme İndeksi (SYİ)-2015 ve Türkiye Beslenme Rehberi’ne (TÜBER) göre revize edilenSYİ-2015 ile değerlendirilirken, diyet asit yükünün tahmini potansiyel renal asit yükü (PRAL) değeri ve netendojen asit üretimi (NEAP) skoru hesaplanarak yapılmıştır. Ayrıca, katılımcıların antropometrik ölçümleriyapılmış ve malnütrisyon durumları saptamıştır. Yaşam kalitesi ise Çocuklar için Yaşam Kalitesi Ölçeğikullanılarak değerlendirilmiştir. Bulgular: Katılımcıların yarıdan fazlasının (SYİ-2015 puanlarına göre %59’ununve TÜBER’e göre SYİ-2015 puanlarına göre ise %72’sinin) diyet kalitesinin “kötü” olduğunu görülmüştür. PRALve NEAP skorları ise sırasıyla 5.52±12.42 ve 63.61±29.92 mEq/gün olarak bulunmuştur. Ayrıca, katılımcıların%50’sinde orta veya ağır malnütrisyonun olduğu ve karıştırıcı faktörler için düzeltme yapıldığında dahimalnütrisyon varlığının, genel sağlıkla ilişkili yaşam kalitesinde 11 puanlık düşüşle ilişkili olduğu gösterilmiştir.Sonuç: KBY’li çocukların yaşam kalitelerinin iyileştirilmesinin önemi göz önüne alındığında, bu araştırmada eldeedilen bulgular diyet kalitesinin iyileştirilmesi ve malnütrisyonun önlenmesine yönelik geliştirilecek stratejilereışık tutmaktadır.</p

‘Cittaslow’: an alternative model for local sustainable development or just a myth? Empirical evidence in the case of Tarakli (Turkey)

This research attempts to answer whether Cittaslow is a myth or an effective model for development for Taraklı, a small town in the Sakarya province of Turkey. The study was designed and analysed using the mixed method research model. The results are as follows. Since Taraklı became a Cittaslow, the number of tourists increased which ultimately helped to fight against unemployment and also increased income of people. Women’s participation in the labour force had increased and their representation in public places was enhanced. Important steps were taken towards the preservation of cultural heritage. Along with quantitative and qualitative improvements in green areas, the local people’s awareness of environmental protection has increased

‘Cittaslow’: An Alternative Model for Local Sustainable Development or Just a Myth? Empirical Evidence in the Case of Tarakli (Turkey)

This research attempts to answer whether Cittaslow is a myth or an effective model for development for Taraklı, a small town in the Sakarya province of Turkey. The study was designed and analysed using the mixed method research model. The results are as follows. Since Taraklı became a Cittaslow, the number of tourists increased which ultimately helped to fight against unemployment and also increased income of people. Women's participation in the labour force had increased and their representation in public places was enhanced. Important steps were taken towards the preservation of cultural heritage. Along with quantitative and qualitative improvements in green areas, the local people's awareness of environmental protection has increased